Contour fashion catwalk + an update!

by Ashleigh Jessica

It’s been a while since my last post, so first of all I want to apologise! But, my degree is now finished! Final hand in was the 11th of May and on the 7th of June we had our final Catwalk show at Freemasons Hall in London, and I was lucky enough to be chosen to have my work shown on the runway! It’s been such a roller coaster of an experience, from horrible lows full of tears, a complete lack of sleep and a feeling of stress that made me sick to my stomach, to ridiculous highs of excitement and smiles! I want to fill you all in on what I’ve been doing, so to warn you all now, this post will be a long one!

One of the most exciting parts of the last few months of my degree was our catalogue photo shoot, shot by the wonderful Fabrice Lachant. It was a long day of hair and make up, model fittings and making sure the garments fit on the model as perfectly as possible, and after a morning watching the other girls fitting their chosen outfit and feeling so proud of how far we’d all come, it was my turn.

The model moved in my outfit with such ease, her posing was beautiful and really captured the elegance of my garments, watching her was incredible and I was thrilled with how it turned out.

Design by – Laura Homer

Design by – Sarah Platts

Design by – Emily Lawrance

Design by – Charly Pope

It was a long 2 months before we were finally given the finished catalogue and we all eagerly flicked through the pages looking for our final pieces.. and it’s safe to say we were all over the moon! I love how my final image turned out, the ribbon falls down around her just as I wanted it to, and the hazy, smoked finish Fabrice created is beautiful.

From then to May 11th, our time was spent frantically trying to finish our collections and remain as sane as humanly possible.

I don’t think any amount of pictures could fully justify how horrible the last 2 months have been, and at the time It did feel like it would be hard to feel excited about the course again, but after hand in, there was the small matter of the catwalk to think about, and whether I’d even be chosen to be apart of it.

Since starting the course 3 years ago, the aim was always getting there, the catwalk, it was always what we aimed for (the majority of us anyway) and it was the light at the end of the tunnel thinking that there was a possibility that it could happen.

So the presentations were planned, our speeches were rehearsed over and over and the anxiety set in once again. As I stood in front of a panel of industry experts and my tutors, I just thought ‘this is it, this is my chance to make the last dream that I’ve been striving for come true’.

I don’t remember what I said or the questions I was asked, I just remember a huge over whelming feeling of relief as I walked away, knowing I’d done everything I could and that the control was out of my hands, it was up to someone else to decide, I didn’t have to worry anymore. When all the presentations of the day were finished, all we could do was wait for the email and hope that we’d made a good enough impression.

When the email came through, I scanned the list for my name and when I saw it I just burst into tears! The standard of the work this year is phenomenal, and to be considered good enough to show on the Catwalk to the industry that would represent the course was unbelievable. When I composed myself and looked through the list for a second time, I welled up with pride and happiness for the other girls whose names I began to see, I was so thrilled for them, I couldn’t believe we’d all made it, I already couldn’t wait for June the 7th to come!

The day itself was one of the busiest days of my entire life! From the 5am start to when my head hit the pillow at 1am the following day, I hardly had a minute to sit down and think! Let alone take in everything that was going on!

The day ran so smoothly, the garments fit the models perfectly, the shoes all fit, the hair and the make up was beautiful, everyones work looked stunning, I had no complaints!

Me with my 8ft tall, blown up catalogue image at the entrance of the catwalk!

Knowing the industry would be viewing our work and judging it was obviously nerve wracking, but as I’ve said, we were all so busy and rushed, I don’t think we had the time to appreciate how big of a deal it all was until we sat down at the end of it all!

Below I’ve included some images of some of our collections on the catwalk, I can’t include everyones but Lingerie Insight and Lingerie Buyer have some gorgeous images so go take a look!

Collection – Ashleigh Smith

Collection – Laura Homer

Collection – Megan Ketterer

Collection – Nabila Omar

Collection – Beth Kendall

Collection – Kiri Boyle

Collection – Amy Booth

Collection – Sara Caspi

I’d love to show you more, but please, please go and have a look here and here for more examples of the work that was on display, every girl that took part deserves such a huge well done for everything they achieved and managed to pull together for the show and I wish I could list everyone but I feel this post is already enormous!

I want to say the biggest thank you to my course organiser Gillian for making the day possible and organising this all for us, and a huge good luck to everyone single girl from Contour and Fashion and Contour for the future, I hope you all get the career you’ve been dreaming of!

It’s been such a roller coaster, but I honestly wouldn’t change a minute.